Category: #zapost

Soldiers opened fire on Nigerian protesters in the Lekki district of the commercial capital Lagos on Tuesday, shooting at least two people, three witnesses told Reuters.

Protesters have demonstrated for more than a week over allegations of police brutality in Nigeria.

“They started firing ammunition toward the crowd. They were firing into the crowd,” said Alfred Ononugbo, 55, a security officer. “I saw the bullet hit one or two persons,” he said.

Lagos state government said it would open an investigation into the shooting, which witnesses said took place around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT).

“There have been reports of shooting at the Lekki Toll Plaza,” Gboyega Akosile, a spokesman for the governor, said on Twitter. “The State Government has ordered an investigation into the incident,” he said in another tweet.

A Nigerian army spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Inyene Akpan, 26, a photographer, said more than 20 soldiers arrived at the toll gate in Lekki and opened fire. He said he saw two people being shot.

Akinbosola Ogunsanya, a third witness, said he saw around 10 people being shot. He also said he saw soldiers remove bodies.

A Reuters witness heard sirens and gunfire.

Authorities on Tuesday imposed a round-the-clock curfew on Lagos, which contains Africa’s biggest city, in response to the protests, which the state governor said had turned violent.

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Sudan has transferred the compensation it has agreed to pay US victims of militant attacks and their families, paving the way for its reintegration into the global economy after nearly three decades of isolation, the central bank governor said on Tuesday.

The payment of $335 million is part of a deal with the United States to get Sudan removed from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which has been a hurdle for Khartoum as it sought debt relief and external borrowing.

Sudan has transferred the required amount, bank governor Mohamed al-Fatih Zainelabidine told a news conference.

Thanks to US sanctions dating back to the 1990s, Sudan has been largely cut off from international banking. But Zainelabidine said local banks could begin restoring correspondence relations next week following the US move.

“The Sudanese economy will not feel a fundamental change tomorrow morning,” Acting Finance Minister Hiba Mohamed Ali warned at the conference. “But there will be some rapid improvements, including moral and psychological.”

These include eliminating Sudan’s debts and commitments to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We have prepared and are passing through a very delicate phase, and you will hear good news about it soon,” Ali said.

After that, Sudan would apply for debt relief under the IMF and World Bank programme for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), allowing it to combine its $60 billion in debts to various parties into one pool, Ali said.

Sudan has been in economic crisis for decades. The Sudanese pound has fallen to 220 to the dollar on the black market from 50 pounds two years ago, and the country has $60 billion in foreign debts. The crisis has accelerated since the overthrow of Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir last year.

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Over 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania have been hurt by human rights violations linked to Total’s TOTF.PA oil operations in Uganda, two French activist groups said in a report on Tuesday.

Friends of the Earth and a second group called Survie are seeking a court order requiring Total to disclose how it is addressing the adverse impact of its activities, citing an obligation to do so under French law.

Total rejected allegations that it had infringed on human rights in a statement, saying its project had been conceived with the aim of minimising the impact on residents in the area as much as possible.

It said no-one had had to leave their land without appropriate compensation, and that it was looking to introduce a system of interim payments after the coronavirus pandemic caused delays to the project.

The campaign groups, along with Ugandan activists, have alleged that Total intimidated and failed to properly compensate local landowners affected by work on its Tilenga project in Uganda, and said environmental safeguards were insufficient.

They added in their latest report that the situation was also disrupting access to education and healthcare in some cases.

One French court previously ruled it was not within its remit to judge the case. The activists appealed the decision, and another ruling is due next week.

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Ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and other suspects wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur must face justice without further delay, the court’s chief prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Options for prosecuting them, including a trial in Sudan and a hybrid tribunal, were being discussed with Sudanese authorities, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters during a visit to Khartoum.

“We are seeing what is possible,” Bensouda said. “They must all face justice without further delay.”

The ICC has outstanding arrest warrants against Bashir and three other Sudanese suspects on charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The conflict in Darfur, in the west of Sudan, escalated from 2003 when mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Bashir’s government, triggering a campaign of repression by the army and mostly-Arab militias. More than 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.

Bashir has been in jail in Khartoum since he was forced from office in April 2019 following months of protests.

Bensouda said she was encouraged by meetings with senior officials from the transitional authorities who assumed power after hos overthrow

“I particularly welcomed the assurances of support and cooperation expressed to me by the authorities during this visit,” she said.

Bashir appeared in a trial on Tuesday over the 1989 coup that brought him to power.

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